The All Burma Monks Alliance is praying for democracy, but if the past is any teacher, it will take a lot more to make the junta budge. Their plans so far are not encouraging.
Here's an account from an American tourist who recently visited the country.
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[The following is a guest post from Tricycle's Copy Editor Karen Ready.]
I'm puzzled that virtually no New York bloggers have posted anything about Evan Brenner's work in progress The Buddha-In His Own Words, a one-man performance of excerpts from the life and teachings of the Buddha taken directly from the vast collection we know as the Pali canon. These texts form the basis of the Theravada tradition: discourses, teachings, monastic rules, and philosophical texts attributed in large part to the Buddha and his disciples, they were passed on orally and committed to writing only after the Buddha's death. The play is the result of some four years of work (so far) on Brenner's part to "assemble the life of the Buddha." I like his choice of "assemble": in fact, Mark Epstein has referred to the play as "masterfully crafted," and both terms provide a good sense of Brenner's deceptively simple eighty-minute creation, like the attentive folding of an origami shape. Here the actor-playwright takes on all the roles, from the young prince who leaves his royal surroundings to seek an answer to the world of suffering and death he finds beyond the palace gates, to those he encounters along the way (including Mara the tempter), to members of his ever-growing following as well as opponents who brought tragedy to his later years.
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In honor of the Pope and Dalai's simultaneous visit to our fair shores, the Supreme Court decided by a 7-2 margin that lethal injection as used to kill convicts in Kentucky does not violate the Constitution.
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20 activists arrested in Burma. Thanks to Precious Metal for this one.
The Chinese media on guns and bombs supposedly found in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries.
A light piece on how the Dalai Lama is more than a simple Buddhist monk.
A Bu-Jew's guide to Passover from the Huffington Post.
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U.N. special rapporteur Paulo Sergio Pinheiro calls Burma's upcoming constitutional referendum a joke:
Speaking in Brussels, Mr Pinheiro said that the referendum would not have any credibility if opponents were prevented from speaking out.
"How can you have a referendum without any of the basic freedoms?" he was quoted by the Associated Press news agency as saying.
"It would be important to have international observers to validate the referendum, because if not it would be just a ritual without real content."
He also said he saw no signs of political progress of any kind in the country.
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The torch comes to India, home of the Tibetan exile community. (But the DL is in the U.S., currently getting a checkup at the Mayo Clinic -- he has good insurance.) Several protesters have been arrested in India already.
Walter Mondale says theres no need for a boycott. Mondale, as Carter's VP, was involed in the boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. Bush's foreign policy expert Stephen Hadley (the man who confused Nepal and Tibet) called boycotting the opening ceremonies a "cop-out" and said that instead, the U.S.
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An appeal is made to the E.U. to slow down on using biofuels, which can be worse for the earth per gallon than fossil fuels.
But on the other hand it's a little frightening that India (along with many other countries) is building huge coal-burning plants as fast as they can. As Andrew Revkin writes:
The decision [to build the coal-burning plants] powerfully illustrates one of the most inconvenient facets of the world’s intertwined climate and energy challenges — that more than two billion people still lack any viable energy choices, let alone green ones.
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Fareed Zakaria thinks boycotting the opening ceremonies of the Olympics makes no sense. He points out that the Chinese government is not really acting in opposition to the feelings of its citizens (and we know China cares more about domestic politics than foreign politics, as does the United States, generally):
Public humiliation does not work nearly as well on the regime in Beijing as private pressure. At first glance, China's recent crackdown in Tibet looks like a familiar storyline: a dictatorship represses its people. And of course that's part of the reality -- as it often is in China. But on this issue, the communist regime is not in opposition to its people. The vast majority of Chinese have little sympathy for the Tibetan cause.
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Both the Pope and the Dalai Lama are in the U.S., one on the East Coast, one on the West. The Dalai Lama has been met with both adoring schoolchildren and pro-China protesters. Guess which group called him a "CIA-funded militant"? The DL also reiterated his threat to resign if the violence continues.
Students for a Free Tibet has cool Tibetan Olympic gear for sale, but much of it seems to be sold out. Are they playing with our desire?
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This picture from the Times was fairly striking. Americans in action-paparazzi poses photographing monks. The article is about tourism in a town in Laos. [Photo: David Longstreath/Associated Press]
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Is there more crime near slaughterhouses?
And you may have heard about the recent confusion between Nepal and Tibet by a member of President Bush's crack team of foreign policy experts. Get the scoop from the Worst Horse.
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Nine monks arrested for allegedly planting a bomb:
China has arrested nine monks for a bomb attack on a government building in Tibet last month, an official said yesterday.
Tibetan support groups warned that it was impossible to verify the claims because the authorities do not allow independent observers into the region.
The state-run Xinhua news agency alleged that the monks from the Tongxia monastery - around 850 miles east of Lhasa - fled after their homemade bomb exploded in Gyanbe township but later confessed to planting it.
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Philip Glass's opera "Satyagraha" premiered at the Metropolitan Opera on Friday. Here's some video from it, and a review from the New York Times. For more Satyagraha events, visit the Satyagraha Forum.
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Bush will attend the Olympics, and is unlikely to skip the opening ceremonies, as several European heads of states have said they would do.
Chinese President Hu Jintao says Tibet is an internal issue for China and no one else.
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